


wanna feel your lips against my skin

by pendules



Series: ambrollins prompts [1]
Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Insecurity, Love Confessions, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Touching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-15
Updated: 2017-09-15
Packaged: 2018-12-30 03:47:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12100032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pendules/pseuds/pendules
Summary: Dean almost forgot how good it feels to have someone, someone whocaresabout him, someone who has his back. To just have someone to stand by his side. To hold him up when it feels like his legs or his heart are about to give out. He's been fighting alone for so damn long that just a single, simple touch feels like a tremendous, miraculous relief.And Seth — Seth always seems to breathe easier when his hands are on Dean.





	wanna feel your lips against my skin

**Author's Note:**

> prompt from [funheists](http://funheists.tumblr.com): "dean realizing the reason seth is so touchy and telling him he's not going anywhere."
> 
> [tumblr link.](http://dudeambrose.tumblr.com/post/165367229353/wanna-feel-your-lips-against-my-skin-deanseth)

Being around Seth now like this is — weird. Not _bad_ weird, really. Just _different_ weird. It's like he's still testing the waters, figuring out where Dean's boundaries lie and how not to cross them. It's different from before — when they were all so comfortable with each other, constantly being in each other's space, when every touch and movement and gesture was casual and instinctive and unthinking.

Seth's still cautious in everything he says and does. Dean can see the gears turning in his head as he tries to navigate what's allowed and what isn't. How much he's being given and how much he's allowed to take.

Sometimes, he still feels withdrawn, like he's letting Dean take the lead and not asking for too much in return. But other times — well, other times, it's like he can't help himself from wanting _everything all at once_.

*

It starts with lingering stares and an extended fist that he walks away from — until he doesn't. It doesn't end there, though. 

It's Seth letting him lean on him when he's battered and exhausted. It's Seth being oddly protective of him. It's Seth putting an arm around his shoulders, the weight and warmth of him making him feel stronger, braver — _not alone_. It's listening to Seth's steady breathing and hearing his soothing voice and feeling his fingers on the small of his back, grounding him and instantly calming him down.

Dean almost forgot how good it feels to have someone, someone who _cares_ about him, someone who has his back. To just have someone to stand by his side. To hold him up when it feels like his legs or his heart are about to give out. He's been fighting alone for so damn long that just a single, simple touch feels like a tremendous, miraculous relief.

And Seth — Seth always seems to breathe easier when his hands are on Dean.

*

Dean wakes up in the trainer's room with an intense, splitting headache. He squints around for a minute or two and realises there's only one other person in the room.

"Seth?" he calls out, vision blurred, voice hoarse.

He's standing near the door and he doesn't move any closer, but it feels like he's conflicted about that at the same time. His arms are folded across his chest and his posture's tense — Dean glances up at his face and he wonders if maybe someone's actually just died.

"What the hell happened, man?" he manages to articulate, reaching up to massage one of his throbbing temples.

"You got hit in the head pretty hard," Seth tells him, his voice sounding strangely hollow. He pauses for a second, like he's reliving the whole thing again. "You just — crumpled to the mat. It was pretty fucking scary, you know."

Dean just nods, absorbing that for a few moments. He's had concussions before, pretty bad ones too, and it's nothing to get too worked-up over — but he can understand Seth's distress in the moment. 

He has a sudden flash of Seth on his knees in front of him, carefully holding Dean's face in his hands, looking near tears, asking him if he's alright, almost in a plea — he's not sure if that actually happened or if he's just imagining it.

He wouldn't be surprised if it did, though, from the haunted way Seth's still looking at him.

"You can touch me, if you want," Dean tells him in his most offhand tone.

" _What?_ " Seth asks, eyes widening in surprise.

"I mean — it's awkward as fuck with you just standing there. At least sit down."

"Oh," Seth says, sounding relieved. "Okay."

He takes the chair next to the bed Dean's in and after visibly struggling with something internally for a moment or two and then seemingly coming to a decision, he reaches out and touches his fingers to the inside of Dean's wrist, right on his pulse point. Dean feels and sees his entire body palpably _relax_ then.

"I'll be fine," Dean reassures him with a crooked smile. "I'm indestructible, remember?"

Seth just shakes his head soberly. "No, you're not. I almost broke you once. I don't want it to happen again."

"Wait," Dean says, trying to sit up on the bed. "Is that why you've been acting so fucking weird?"

"What do you mean?" Seth says, eyes narrowed in puzzlement.

"I mean — you keep _touching_ me like you're afraid I'm not actually real or something."

" _Oh_ ," Seth says, and he swallows hard before turning his face away for a second, like he's steadying himself for whatever happens next.

Dean just waits patiently until he's ready to spit out whatever's been bothering him.

He finally looks back up at Dean's face. "I keep wondering if I'm gonna wake up one morning and you're gonna hate me again," he confesses.

"Seth — _what_ —"

"I know it's fucking irrational, okay?" he bursts out. "But this — _all of this_ — feels too good to be true most of the time. I mean, not the you-getting-concussed part, but everything else —"

Dean just laughs under his breath at the ridiculousness of all of this. "You really just need to chill, man."

"I don't know how to," Seth admits. "Not when this — _you_ mean so much to me."

"Yeah?" Dean says, blinking up at him, caught a little off-guard himself now.

"I'm serious," Seth says, his eyes imploring him to believe that. "You know I — I love you, right, man?"

" _Jesus Christ_ ," Dean exclaims. "Are you _sure_ I'm not dying right now?"

Seth laughs slightly deliriously himself now. "I _mean_ it," he says firmly. "I just want you to know that."

"In case I — What? Disappear?" Dean says, not entirely joking.

"I don't know," Seth says, sounding uncertain. "Sometimes, I'm so fucking happy just _being with you_ and I feel like it'll just slip right out of my hands at any moment. Like maybe you'll just...realise you don't actually want this anymore."

Dean lets out a sigh. "I've had loads of time to figure it out," he tells Seth as matter-of-factly as possible. "I wouldn't _be_ here if I didn't want this. Trust me."

"I _do_ trust you," Seth says significantly. "But do you trust _me_?"

It's still not an easy question to answer, and they both know that.

"I trust that you have my back," Dean says honestly. "I trust that you don't want to screw this up. I trust that you're _trying_ to be better than before."

"And is that enough?" Seth asks tentatively.

"It's enough for me," Dean says, with a tone of finality.

Seth gives him a brief smile, almost of gratitude, and before he can pull his hand away, Dean catches it in his own, threading their fingers together.

Seth just stares at him, taking shallow breaths, lips slightly parted, with a look in his eyes he's never quite seen there before — or maybe he hasn't been paying enough attention — a mixture of wistfulness and disbelief and desire.

They just stay like that for a little while longer.

*

A few nights later, Seth knocks on his hotel room door and Dean wordlessly opens it and lets him in, leads him over to the bed, lets Seth curl his own body into Dean's, rest his head on his chest and close his eyes as Dean wraps an arm around his shoulders. He brushes some of the soft hair out of Seth's face and he feels Seth take a deep breath in — like he's breathing in _everything_ : Dean and this moment and every unspoken thing they have between them. Like he's committing the exact feeling of _this_ to memory. So he can never lose it again.

Dean presses a gentle kiss to Seth's forehead before he closes his own eyes too.

"I'll be here when you wake up," he promises him in a tender, hushed voice.


End file.
